Popular in Arts and Humanities

Arts and Humanities

Titus Quinctius Flamininus’ “Italian triumph”

McGill University Michael Fronda

Arts and Humanities

Lincoln and the Jews

Brandeis University Jonathan Sarna

Arts and Humanities

Amputations and Convalescence

University of Western Australia Emily Brink

Art

Drawing on the past: Palladio, his precursors and knowledge of ancient architecture

University of Birmingham David Hemsoll

Art

Language, Sound, and Image in Wallace Berman’s Aleph, 1956–1966

University of San Diego Chelsea Behle Fralick

Arts and Humanities

Early Modern Natural Law Theories

University of Copenhagen Knud Haakonssen

What the Emperor Built

View more insights in Arts and Humanities - Art - Art History

View more figures from Boston College

View the page of Aurelia Campbell

Read the Study

Aurelia Campbell discusses one of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 19, 2024

Generating Workspace

Export as PDF

The speaker discusses their research on Chinese architectural history, revealing a notable gap in scholarship regarding the period after 1400, particularly the Ming Dynasty. While traditional architecture from earlier periods is scarce, many existing buildings date from the Ming period onward. The speaker focuses on an emperor known as the Yongle Emperor (Zhu Di), whose reign featured significant architectural projects, including a brass building on a Daoist mountain and constructions at a Tibetan monastery.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of their fieldwork across China over a decade, visiting and documenting various sites. They note that the Yongle Emperor’s rise to power involved a civil war, where he killed his nephew, leading to a fresh dynasty. After this, he relocated the capital back to Beijing, reviving its significance, which had previously been the Mongol capital.

Additionally, the emperor’s background influenced his architectural vision, as having lived in Mongol palaces fostered an understanding of architecture as a political tool. The speaker argues that the emperor’s desire to honor a Daoist deity influenced the construction of elaborate temples and complexes.

As Yongle focused on creating a legacy through architecture, he oversaw extensive construction efforts, particularly as he wanted large, impressive structures signifying power. This video video led to the widespread harvesting of non-mu wood for construction, resulting in environmental consequences due to deforestation that affected future building efforts.

The speaker underscores the broader implications of these architectural choices on imperial legacy and societal structures, positing that architecture serves as a medium of political power and can leave lasting impacts on historical memory. They conclude by encouraging readers to appreciate the stories buildings tell and their roles in shaping society, as well as the nuanced ways architecture can influence our lives.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.225 --> 00:03.165
So during that time, I was studying Chinese architectural

00:03.165 --> 00:04.245
history, and I noticed

00:04.245 --> 00:07.205
that most scholarship on Chinese architecture dealt

00:07.235 --> 00:09.765
with periods before the main dynasty.

00:09.865 --> 00:14.725
So that's like, prior to the year 14, around 1400.

00:15.425 --> 00:17.245
Um, but at the same time, I noticed that a lot

00:17.245 --> 00:20.365
of architecture that survive traditional architecture

00:20.365 --> 00:23.965
that survives in China dates from the Ming Dynasty onward

00:23.965 --> 00:25.525
because architecture from that

00:25.825 --> 00:28.085
before that time is just really scarce.

00:28.785 --> 00:32.765
Um, so I figure that there must be something interesting

00:32.765 --> 00:34.885
to say about architecture after 1400.

00:35.185 --> 00:37.845
So I began reading as much scholarship on it,

00:38.265 --> 00:39.645
that I could find.

00:40.505 --> 00:42.165
And it was during the, that time

00:42.165 --> 00:45.125
that I kept reading about buildings patronized

00:45.385 --> 00:48.925
by an emperor called, and,

00:49.585 --> 00:53.245
and the buildings that survived from his reign were not just

00:53.915 --> 00:57.805
well preserved, but they also seemed really interesting.

00:58.105 --> 01:00.885
So they had interesting histories, like there was a,

01:01.445 --> 01:04.965
a building made out of brass that he constructed on top

01:04.965 --> 01:08.605
of a Daoist mountain in the center of the country.

01:09.105 --> 01:11.805
And then there was an imperial style building at a

01:12.165 --> 01:13.205
Tibetan monastery.

01:13.345 --> 01:16.085
He built way out at the Sino Tibetan frontier.

01:16.745 --> 01:20.885
So I, I started thinking that there was a,

01:21.025 --> 01:22.365
an interesting story there

01:22.365 --> 01:23.965
and a good story to tell by

01:24.645 --> 01:26.445
examining all his projects together,

01:26.535 --> 01:28.565
which nobody had previously done.

01:29.105 --> 01:30.885
Uh, so that's what I decided

01:30.985 --> 01:32.485
to write about for my first book.

01:32.905 --> 01:35.765
The book involved because I was studying architecture

01:36.105 --> 01:38.005
and I wasn't, for instance, studying

01:38.595 --> 01:42.005
objects in museum collections or dealing only with texts.

01:42.485 --> 01:44.605
I had to spend quite a lot of time in China.

01:45.025 --> 01:48.205
So I went to China almost every summer for about 10 years,

01:48.865 --> 01:50.445
between about 2008

01:50.585 --> 01:54.045
and 2017 while I was writing this book.

01:54.305 --> 01:57.725
And I visited the sites about which I wrote,

01:58.365 --> 02:01.085
multiple times each, which was not easy

02:01.085 --> 02:03.885
because they're scattered across the whole country.

02:03.985 --> 02:05.925
And as we all know, China is very big.

02:06.425 --> 02:10.205
Um, so I spent a lot of time,

02:10.605 --> 02:13.365
visiting these far-flung, regions

02:13.665 --> 02:16.965
and taking photographs of the buildings, writing down

02:16.965 --> 02:18.765
as many observations as I could.

02:19.225 --> 02:23.165
And then, besides that pretty intensive field work,

02:23.745 --> 02:27.005
my main research for this project involved, reading

02:27.965 --> 02:32.405
a lot of texts, mostly, Chinese scholarships,

02:32.675 --> 02:34.725
primary and secondary scholarship.

02:35.005 --> 02:37.405
'cause there wasn't a lot in English

02:37.405 --> 02:38.845
published on this subject.

02:39.385 --> 02:42.885
The history of, this emperor is really interesting

02:43.025 --> 02:45.565
and actually any student of Chinese history

02:46.345 --> 02:47.485
has probably heard of him

02:47.825 --> 02:52.365
and has also heard about this emperor, in the context of

02:52.385 --> 02:54.725
how he came to be emperor.

02:55.185 --> 02:57.405
So he was actually, he was the son

02:57.405 --> 02:58.725
of the first emperor of the

02:58.885 --> 03:01.285
Ming Dynasty, who was known as Jiang,

03:01.745 --> 03:03.965
but he was not the eldest son.

03:04.225 --> 03:08.525
So when Jiang died, the throne was passed to his eldest son,

03:08.985 --> 03:11.845
but that son was already dead

03:11.905 --> 03:13.685
before the, he inherited the throne.

03:13.905 --> 03:18.645
So then it was passed to that eldest son's, son,

03:19.255 --> 03:22.525
which was, the future Yola emperor's nephew.

03:23.465 --> 03:26.365
So the Yola Emperor at that time, his name is Judee,

03:26.545 --> 03:29.925
he did not like the fact that his nephew was the emperor.

03:30.185 --> 03:34.285
So he, it started a civil war with his nephew where he,

03:34.505 --> 03:35.805
he killed his nephew,

03:36.205 --> 03:37.805
although they never found the body,

03:37.805 --> 03:40.605
which haunted jla throughout his whole reign.

03:41.065 --> 03:43.445
Um, but he killed his nephew,

03:43.545 --> 03:45.565
burned down the imperial palaces

03:45.665 --> 03:49.325
and started the kind of dynasty afresh in many ways.

03:49.745 --> 03:51.965
So one of the things he did was move the capital

03:52.275 --> 03:53.285
back up to Beijing.

03:54.145 --> 03:57.205
Um, so Beijing, as we know, is still the capital of China.

03:57.585 --> 04:01.245
It had been the capital under when the Mongols ruled China

04:01.905 --> 04:04.005
in the century before the Ming Dynasty.

04:04.465 --> 04:07.525
But ju un Jang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty moved

04:07.525 --> 04:11.765
to the capital south, to na Jing, the city of Na Jing.

04:12.065 --> 04:14.325
But so when, after the civil war and

04:14.325 --> 04:16.605
after yah established power as emperor,

04:16.605 --> 04:19.325
he moved the capital backup, to

04:19.325 --> 04:21.525
where the Mongols had ruled, which was

04:21.525 --> 04:24.525
where he had been in EFT as a prince prior

04:24.585 --> 04:26.205
to his US oration of power.

04:26.905 --> 04:29.525
So, one of the things I argue in my book is

04:29.525 --> 04:33.045
that these experiences growing up in Beijing,

04:33.265 --> 04:34.725
the former Mongol capital,

04:35.145 --> 04:38.485
and in fact Yung lab, while he was still a prince,

04:38.885 --> 04:42.125
actually lived in the former Mongol imperial palaces.

04:42.805 --> 04:45.525
I believe all of that shaped his understanding

04:45.785 --> 04:47.565
of the importance of architecture

04:47.565 --> 04:49.845
as a political political tool.

04:50.305 --> 04:53.645
And also gave him a kind of sense of grandeur

04:53.645 --> 04:56.485
that he was the prince in Fief in this,

04:56.665 --> 04:58.165
former imperial capital.

04:58.585 --> 05:02.005
So I think all of this, being stationed in the capital

05:02.105 --> 05:05.125
as a prince and living in the former Mongol palaces helped

05:05.125 --> 05:09.285
shaped his, understanding of the power of architecture

05:09.345 --> 05:10.485
as a political tool

05:10.585 --> 05:12.885
during when he eventually became emperor.

05:13.195 --> 05:14.405
I'll just say one other thing.

05:14.425 --> 05:17.925
And that's, during his e

05:19.625 --> 05:23.925
Yah claimed that a deity, a Daoist deity called

05:24.475 --> 05:27.405
genu, which can be translated to the true warrior,

05:27.985 --> 05:31.925
he claimed that this deity had aided him in his usurpation.

05:32.545 --> 05:37.525
So he vowed from that time onward to repay the deity by,

05:38.245 --> 05:41.085
building an elaborate architectural complex full

05:41.085 --> 05:45.885
of Daoist temples and, other religious architecture

05:46.465 --> 05:49.165
on the, in the mountains where John Wu,

05:49.165 --> 05:50.885
this deity was said to reside.

05:51.345 --> 05:55.765
So that also, that historical context of his user,

05:57.025 --> 06:01.245
his rise, his rise to pow, unusual rise to power

06:01.995 --> 06:06.485
also contributed to his future architectural projects in, in

06:06.485 --> 06:09.125
that way the architecture in Yang's reign,

06:09.125 --> 06:11.765
even though it's scattered across the country,

06:11.765 --> 06:13.765
because he was building all over the place,

06:14.345 --> 06:16.805
if we actually look at it side by side

06:16.825 --> 06:18.885
or compare the buildings, we can see

06:19.395 --> 06:21.525
that they are all built according

06:21.545 --> 06:23.245
to the same kinds of principles.

06:23.905 --> 06:27.125
Um, so this is manifest in a number of ways

06:27.125 --> 06:28.365
that I won't get into here

06:28.605 --> 06:29.765
'cause it's a little too technical,

06:30.145 --> 06:32.765
but there's no textual record that tells us why,

06:33.105 --> 06:35.725
why they were all built according to the same sets

06:35.725 --> 06:38.605
of principles or what kinds of,

06:38.855 --> 06:40.885
ideas governed their construction.

06:41.265 --> 06:43.405
So all we have is the buildings themselves.

06:44.065 --> 06:46.645
Um, but we do have the historical knowledge

06:46.755 --> 06:49.285
that two imperial capitals were built.

06:49.465 --> 06:51.685
The first one in Nanjing, as I explained,

06:51.705 --> 06:55.165
and the second one in Beijing, within a period

06:55.265 --> 06:56.925
of less than 50 years.

06:57.665 --> 07:00.645
So there was an intense amount of construction during

07:00.645 --> 07:03.605
that time, and master carpenters

07:03.825 --> 07:06.645
and other craftsmen would've been working like crazy

07:06.865 --> 07:10.405
to erect all these buildings in these magnificent capitals.

07:10.865 --> 07:15.525
So I believe this standardization was an outgrowth of,

07:15.755 --> 07:17.845
this really, intense period

07:17.865 --> 07:20.525
of construction in the first few decades

07:20.745 --> 07:22.085
of the Ming Dynasty.

07:22.585 --> 07:26.845
Um, and it was a way of helping them to facilitate,

07:27.745 --> 07:32.005
the construction and build buildings much faster

07:32.305 --> 07:34.365
and much more easily,

07:34.545 --> 07:37.365
but also build buildings that were clear

07:38.075 --> 07:40.205
that you could clearly tell the hierarchy

07:40.205 --> 07:43.685
or you could clearly tell the rank of the building, just

07:43.685 --> 07:47.445
by looking at it, which was an important, facet

07:47.585 --> 07:51.845
of Chinese architecture dating way back as far as we know

07:51.845 --> 07:54.645
that this issue of rank or hierarchy is important.

07:55.305 --> 07:58.965
Um, so I believe the standardization was an outgrowth

07:59.105 --> 08:01.725
of all this construction that was going on.

08:02.025 --> 08:06.325
Uh, during this period, non mu is a type of wood

08:06.355 --> 08:10.885
that comes from enormous trees in old growth forests in the

08:10.885 --> 08:11.965
southwest of China.

08:12.785 --> 08:17.125
So when Ywa became emperor, he wanted to, I just mentioned

08:17.155 --> 08:19.925
that he reestablished the capital in Beijing.

08:20.465 --> 08:23.565
He tore down all the former Mongol palaces

08:23.665 --> 08:26.645
and then built his capital, his palaces,

08:26.645 --> 08:27.685
right on top of those.

08:28.345 --> 08:31.245
So he wanted to build the best palaces possible.

08:31.785 --> 08:33.165
He actually sent officials

08:33.825 --> 08:37.005
to go examine forests throughout the empire

08:37.145 --> 08:39.005
to find the biggest trees that they could.

08:39.465 --> 08:43.485
So the most successful of these officials, had found

08:44.085 --> 08:48.805
enormous trees in the southwest in what's now Chuan

08:48.805 --> 08:51.845
and Yan provinces, which is quite far from Beijing,

08:52.025 --> 08:54.525
if you know the geography of China.

08:55.305 --> 08:59.805
Um, but Yolo wanted those big trees, so he had them felled

09:00.145 --> 09:01.725
by the hundreds of thousands.

09:01.785 --> 09:05.365
We don't have a, totally accurate figure of

09:05.385 --> 09:07.405
how many trees he ordered to be cut down,

09:07.505 --> 09:09.045
but it would've been a lot.

09:09.705 --> 09:13.325
And then he had them shipped to the capitals along rivers,

09:13.455 --> 09:14.965
along major waterways.

09:15.075 --> 09:16.445
This process took years.

09:16.595 --> 09:20.045
Just getting the trees to the capitol took years.

09:20.145 --> 09:23.445
And then, not to mention turning those trees into

09:23.845 --> 09:27.005
construction material and building his palaces out of them.

09:27.505 --> 09:29.085
So he wanted big trees

09:29.235 --> 09:32.885
because the columns in Chinese buildings are

09:32.885 --> 09:34.525
basically tree trunks.

09:34.825 --> 09:39.165
Um, so huge columns signified great power,

09:39.625 --> 09:42.725
and with huge, pieces of wood,

09:42.825 --> 09:45.525
you could build really big timber frame buildings.

09:45.705 --> 09:50.005
So Chinese traditional architecture employs a timber frame,

09:50.585 --> 09:54.365
and then brick and ceramic tiles are used for the roofs

09:54.385 --> 09:55.645
and for the walls and things.

09:55.705 --> 09:58.045
But the main structure is a timber frame structure.

09:58.865 --> 10:02.725
Um, so the major implications of this are that

10:03.375 --> 10:05.725
eventually there were no more big trees left

10:05.725 --> 10:07.205
to build imperial buildings.

10:07.425 --> 10:10.925
So I mentioned Yung probably cut hundreds of thousands

10:10.925 --> 10:12.005
of these trees down.

10:12.555 --> 10:14.445
Well, Chinese architecture,

10:14.445 --> 10:16.845
because it's made in wood burns down a lot.

10:17.105 --> 10:19.725
So his successors in the centuries

10:19.725 --> 10:22.925
after him had to rebuild a lot of imperial buildings.

10:23.355 --> 10:25.605
They too wanted to find, by that time,

10:25.825 --> 10:27.925
non mu had become a kind of standard

10:28.105 --> 10:29.925
for imperial construction material.

10:30.785 --> 10:33.765
So they also went to the southwest of the empire to try

10:33.765 --> 10:36.645
to get these timbers and ship them to the capitol.

10:36.945 --> 10:39.485
But the problem was that there were no more big trees.

10:39.535 --> 10:41.205
These took hundreds of years to grow.

10:41.585 --> 10:44.285
So there were no more big trees growing next to the rivers.

10:44.465 --> 10:47.685
So they had to either find smaller ones

10:48.065 --> 10:50.005
or they just couldn't get any trees.

10:50.145 --> 10:54.045
And, and thousands of people died in this process,

10:54.465 --> 10:58.045
and it was enormously expensive and it led to civil wars

10:58.145 --> 11:01.485
or civil unrest in the regions that the trees were,

11:01.785 --> 11:03.485
that came from.

11:03.745 --> 11:07.645
So there was a lot of environmental destruction,

11:07.785 --> 11:09.485
social unrest.

11:09.745 --> 11:13.005
Um, so this, the consequences of

11:13.885 --> 11:14.965
building the palaces out

11:14.965 --> 11:17.285
of this material were actually quite enormous.

11:17.865 --> 11:21.525
Um, so afterwards, Jonah's successors in the hundreds

11:21.525 --> 11:24.605
of years after him, still still wanted

11:24.605 --> 11:26.365
to build palaces out of non mu.

11:26.505 --> 11:28.005
So they just built smaller ones.

11:28.145 --> 11:30.885
So non mu was actually still harvested and still used,

11:30.945 --> 11:32.365
but they had no choice

11:32.385 --> 11:36.365
but to build smaller buildings out of, these trees.

11:37.105 --> 11:41.325
So lots of impacts. Environmental, social, architectural.

11:41.675 --> 11:44.525
This Emper was very concerned about his legacy,

11:44.905 --> 11:46.805
or this is something I argue in my book.

11:47.465 --> 11:51.165
He kind of, my sense is he already knew that

11:51.165 --> 11:54.445
during his own time, his reputation was tainted

11:54.445 --> 11:58.005
because it's not like everybody around him forgot somehow

11:58.315 --> 12:02.485
that he, he was not the legitimate heir to the throne,

12:02.595 --> 12:03.965
that he killed his nephew,

12:04.035 --> 12:06.005
that he burnt down the imperial palace,

12:06.075 --> 12:07.525
that he started a civil war

12:07.545 --> 12:09.405
and then declared himself emperor.

12:09.525 --> 12:12.365
I mean, there was enough recent historical memory that

12:12.365 --> 12:14.805
during his lifetime, nobody could really,

12:15.025 --> 12:18.125
he also fired a lot of officials, killed a lot

12:18.125 --> 12:21.485
of people close to his, his, nephew.

12:21.945 --> 12:26.405
So there were, you know, definitely a large number of people

12:26.405 --> 12:29.085
during his life that didn't despise him.

12:30.025 --> 12:35.005
Um, so I really think, based on what,

12:35.255 --> 12:37.445
based on the architecture he patronized

12:37.505 --> 12:38.765
and based on a number

12:38.765 --> 12:42.125
of other cultural projects in which he engaged, like sending

12:42.825 --> 12:47.605
jhu the Great Admiral on massive voyages to,

12:47.855 --> 12:49.125
India and Africa.

12:49.745 --> 12:53.285
Uh, and Yung also sponsored the creation

12:53.285 --> 12:57.245
of this huge encyclopedia, which until Wikipedia came along,

12:57.345 --> 12:59.845
was the world's largest encyclopedia.

13:00.265 --> 13:03.645
So he was engaged in these kind of huge cultural pursuits.

13:03.985 --> 13:05.045
And I really think

13:05.175 --> 13:07.605
after writing this book, I realized that that's

13:07.725 --> 13:10.365
'cause he realized what he left behind was very important.

13:10.545 --> 13:12.965
His legacy was gonna be more important than

13:13.545 --> 13:16.205
how he proved himself during his own time.

13:16.865 --> 13:18.845
Um, so he seems very concerned about

13:18.845 --> 13:20.925
what future generations would think of him.

13:21.065 --> 13:25.205
And I think all of these arch, great architectural projects,

13:25.705 --> 13:28.485
he sponsored were part of this legacy

13:28.825 --> 13:30.445
and part of how he wanted to be

13:31.005 --> 13:32.485
remembered, in the future.

13:32.825 --> 13:35.405
And indeed, people like me are still writing about them.

13:35.585 --> 13:39.445
So I think in many ways he was, successful.

13:39.945 --> 13:42.205
We all read a lot of books in our lives, hopefully,

13:42.265 --> 13:44.125
and we can't remember every detail,

13:44.465 --> 13:48.685
but I would like readers to at least have the takeaway

13:48.875 --> 13:51.525
that architecture is important,

13:52.145 --> 13:54.485
and that buildings have important stories to tell.

13:55.505 --> 13:57.605
We go through our lives in built spaces,

13:57.755 --> 13:59.685
usually not thinking about them much.

14:00.065 --> 14:04.805
And even buildings as great as the ones patronized by

14:05.555 --> 14:09.285
Yung la we're overlooked by scholars for many decades.

14:10.065 --> 14:14.005
Um, but once you start thinking about them,

14:14.005 --> 14:16.885
there's actually a lot of, or once you start thinking

14:16.905 --> 14:19.205
and delving into them, there's a lot of,

14:19.805 --> 14:21.845
I import they carry a lot of important meaning

14:21.905 --> 14:24.285
and a lot of important information.

14:25.065 --> 14:26.325
Um, so I suppose

14:26.325 --> 14:29.765
after reading my book, I would like people to think about

14:30.945 --> 14:32.925
the world around them in a different light maybe,

14:33.025 --> 14:35.845
or the built world around them, and start considering why

14:35.845 --> 14:38.565
and how buildings came into existence

14:39.305 --> 14:43.125
and possibly even the unspoken ways in which they may shape

14:43.125 --> 14:47.445
our lives and how they could be used as tools of power.

14:47.675 --> 14:50.125
They could be used for good, they could be used for bad.

14:50.665 --> 14:55.365
Um, but that architecture is never totally neutral. I.

00:00 - So during that time, I was studying Chinese architectural history, and I noticed that most scholarship on Chinese architecture dealt with periods before the main dynasty. So that's like, prior to the year 14, around 1400. but at the same time, I noticed that a lot

00:17 - of architecture that survive traditional architecture that survives in China dates from the Ming Dynasty onward because architecture from that before that time is just really scarce. so I figure that there must be something interesting to say about architecture after 1400. So I began reading as much scholarship on it, that I could find. And it was during the, that time that I kept reading about buildings patronized

00:45 - by an emperor called, and, and the buildings that survived from his reign were not just well preserved, but they also seemed really interesting. So they had interesting histories, like there was a, a building made out of brass that he constructed on top of a Daoist mountain in the center of the country. And then there was an imperial style building at a Tibetan monastery. He built way out at the Sino Tibetan frontier. So I, I started thinking that there was a,

01:21 - an interesting story there and a good story to tell by examining all his projects together, which nobody had previously done. so that's what I decided to write about for my first book. The book involved because I was studying architecture and I wasn't, for instance, studying objects in museum collections or dealing only with texts. I had to spend quite a lot of time in China.

01:45 - So I went to China almost every summer for about 10 years, between about 2008 and 2017 while I was writing this book. And I visited the sites about which I wrote, multiple times each, which was not easy because they're scattered across the whole country. And as we all know, China is very big. so I spent a lot of time, visiting these far-flung, regions and taking photographs of the buildings, writing down

02:16 - as many observations as I could. And then, besides that pretty intensive field work, my main research for this project involved, reading a lot of texts, mostly, Chinese scholarships, primary and secondary scholarship. 'cause there wasn't a lot in English published on this subject. The history of, this emperor is really interesting and actually any student of Chinese history has probably heard of him

02:47 - and has also heard about this emperor, in the context of how he came to be emperor. So he was actually, he was the son of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who was known as Jiang, but he was not the eldest son. So when Jiang died, the throne was passed to his eldest son, but that son was already dead before the, he inherited the throne. So then it was passed to that eldest son's, son,

03:19 - which was, the future Yola emperor's nephew. So the Yola Emperor at that time, his name is Judee, he did not like the fact that his nephew was the emperor. So he, it started a civil war with his nephew where he, he killed his nephew, although they never found the body, which haunted jla throughout his whole reign. but he killed his nephew, burned down the imperial palaces and started the kind of dynasty afresh in many ways.

03:49 - So one of the things he did was move the capital back up to Beijing. so Beijing, as we know, is still the capital of China. It had been the capital under when the Mongols ruled China in the century before the Ming Dynasty. But ju un Jang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty moved to the capital south, to na Jing, the city of Na Jing. But so when, after the civil war and after yah established power as emperor, he moved the capital backup, to

04:19 - where the Mongols had ruled, which was where he had been in EFT as a prince prior to his US oration of power. So, one of the things I argue in my book is that these experiences growing up in Beijing, the former Mongol capital, and in fact Yung lab, while he was still a prince, actually lived in the former Mongol imperial palaces. I believe all of that shaped his understanding of the importance of architecture

04:47 - as a political political tool. And also gave him a kind of sense of grandeur that he was the prince in Fief in this, former imperial capital. So I think all of this, being stationed in the capital as a prince and living in the former Mongol palaces helped shaped his, understanding of the power of architecture as a political tool during when he eventually became emperor. I'll just say one other thing.

05:14 - And that's, during his e Yah claimed that a deity, a Daoist deity called genu, which can be translated to the true warrior, he claimed that this deity had aided him in his usurpation. So he vowed from that time onward to repay the deity by, building an elaborate architectural complex full of Daoist temples and, other religious architecture on the, in the mountains where John Wu, this deity was said to reside. So that also, that historical context of his user,

05:57 - his rise, his rise to pow, unusual rise to power also contributed to his future architectural projects in, in that way the architecture in Yang's reign, even though it's scattered across the country, because he was building all over the place, if we actually look at it side by side or compare the buildings, we can see that they are all built according to the same kinds of principles. so this is manifest in a number of ways

06:27 - that I won't get into here 'cause it's a little too technical, but there's no textual record that tells us why, why they were all built according to the same sets of principles or what kinds of, ideas governed their construction. So all we have is the buildings themselves. but we do have the historical knowledge that two imperial capitals were built. The first one in Nanjing, as I explained,

06:51 - and the second one in Beijing, within a period of less than 50 years. So there was an intense amount of construction during that time, and master carpenters and other craftsmen would've been working like crazy to erect all these buildings in these magnificent capitals. So I believe this standardization was an outgrowth of, this really, intense period of construction in the first few decades of the Ming Dynasty.

07:22 - and it was a way of helping them to facilitate, the construction and build buildings much faster and much more easily, but also build buildings that were clear that you could clearly tell the hierarchy or you could clearly tell the rank of the building, just by looking at it, which was an important, facet of Chinese architecture dating way back as far as we know that this issue of rank or hierarchy is important. so I believe the standardization was an outgrowth

07:59 - of all this construction that was going on. during this period, non mu is a type of wood that comes from enormous trees in old growth forests in the southwest of China. So when Ywa became emperor, he wanted to, I just mentioned that he reestablished the capital in Beijing. He tore down all the former Mongol palaces and then built his capital, his palaces, right on top of those. So he wanted to build the best palaces possible.

08:31 - He actually sent officials to go examine forests throughout the empire to find the biggest trees that they could. So the most successful of these officials, had found enormous trees in the southwest in what's now Chuan and Yan provinces, which is quite far from Beijing, if you know the geography of China. but Yolo wanted those big trees, so he had them felled by the hundreds of thousands. We don't have a, totally accurate figure of

09:05 - how many trees he ordered to be cut down, but it would've been a lot. And then he had them shipped to the capitals along rivers, along major waterways. This process took years. Just getting the trees to the capitol took years. And then, not to mention turning those trees into construction material and building his palaces out of them. So he wanted big trees because the columns in Chinese buildings are

09:32 - basically tree trunks. so huge columns signified great power, and with huge, pieces of wood, you could build really big timber frame buildings. So Chinese traditional architecture employs a timber frame, and then brick and ceramic tiles are used for the roofs and for the walls and things. But the main structure is a timber frame structure. so the major implications of this are that eventually there were no more big trees left

10:05 - to build imperial buildings. So I mentioned Yung probably cut hundreds of thousands of these trees down. Well, Chinese architecture, because it's made in wood burns down a lot. So his successors in the centuries after him had to rebuild a lot of imperial buildings. They too wanted to find, by that time, non mu had become a kind of standard for imperial construction material.

10:30 - So they also went to the southwest of the empire to try to get these timbers and ship them to the capitol. But the problem was that there were no more big trees. These took hundreds of years to grow. So there were no more big trees growing next to the rivers. So they had to either find smaller ones or they just couldn't get any trees. And, and thousands of people died in this process, and it was enormously expensive and it led to civil wars or civil unrest in the regions that the trees were,

11:01 - that came from. So there was a lot of environmental destruction, social unrest. so this, the consequences of building the palaces out of this material were actually quite enormous. so afterwards, Jonah's successors in the hundreds of years after him, still still wanted to build palaces out of non mu. So they just built smaller ones.

11:28 - So non mu was actually still harvested and still used, but they had no choice but to build smaller buildings out of, these trees. So lots of impacts. Environmental, social, architectural. This Emper was very concerned about his legacy, or this is something I argue in my book. He kind of, my sense is he already knew that during his own time, his reputation was tainted because it's not like everybody around him forgot somehow that he, he was not the legitimate heir to the throne,

12:02 - that he killed his nephew, that he burnt down the imperial palace, that he started a civil war and then declared himself emperor. I mean, there was enough recent historical memory that during his lifetime, nobody could really, he also fired a lot of officials, killed a lot of people close to his, his, nephew. So there were, you know, definitely a large number of people during his life that didn't despise him.

12:30 - so I really think, based on what, based on the architecture he patronized and based on a number of other cultural projects in which he engaged, like sending jhu the Great Admiral on massive voyages to, India and Africa. and Yung also sponsored the creation of this huge encyclopedia, which until Wikipedia came along, was the world's largest encyclopedia. So he was engaged in these kind of huge cultural pursuits.

13:03 - And I really think after writing this book, I realized that that's 'cause he realized what he left behind was very important. His legacy was gonna be more important than how he proved himself during his own time. so he seems very concerned about what future generations would think of him. And I think all of these arch, great architectural projects, he sponsored were part of this legacy and part of how he wanted to be

13:31 - remembered, in the future. And indeed, people like me are still writing about them. So I think in many ways he was, successful. We all read a lot of books in our lives, hopefully, and we can't remember every detail, but I would like readers to at least have the takeaway that architecture is important, and that buildings have important stories to tell. We go through our lives in built spaces, usually not thinking about them much.

14:00 - And even buildings as great as the ones patronized by Yung la we're overlooked by scholars for many decades. but once you start thinking about them, there's actually a lot of, or once you start thinking and delving into them, there's a lot of, I import they carry a lot of important meaning and a lot of important information. so I suppose after reading my book, I would like people to think about the world around them in a different light maybe,

14:33 - or the built world around them, and start considering why and how buildings came into existence and possibly even the unspoken ways in which they may shape our lives and how they could be used as tools of power. They could be used for good, they could be used for bad. but that architecture is never totally neutral. I.

Faculti AI can make mistakes